


bartender, bartender - bring me another

by alainey



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Drinking, Gen, Hot Chocolate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:21:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21964246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alainey/pseuds/alainey
Summary: Snow falls quietly outside the walls of the small Ionian bar, and Kayn sits alone.His cloak is heavy against his side, the soft cotton material shifting lightly against his corrupted arm, and Rhaast lies flat against his back, his form pulsing in time with Kayn’s heartbeat.In his right hand, Kayn nurses his drink - a single beer, the most he can allow himself in light of the Order’s aversion to inebriation - and Kayn stares across the bar at a row of bottles that glint in the low evening light. Save for the bartender, there’s only one other person in the bar - a rather rugged looking man, slumped against the far back wall - and Kayn eyes him carefully, taking in the thin sword at his hip and the slow rise and fall of his chest.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	bartender, bartender - bring me another

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short one-shot written for [@hhuguri](https://twitter.com/hhuguri) over on twitter for 2019's [Bard Secret Santa](https://twitter.com/bardsecretsanta)!

Snow falls quietly outside the walls of the small Ionian bar, and Kayn sits alone.

His cloak is heavy against his side, the soft cotton material shifting lightly against his corrupted arm, and Rhaast lies flat against his back, his form pulsing in time with Kayn’s heartbeat. 

In his right hand, Kayn nurses his drink - a single beer, the most he can allow himself in light of the Order’s aversion to inebriation - and Kayn stares across the bar at a row of bottles that glint in the low evening light. Save for the bartender, there’s only one other person in the bar - a rather rugged looking man, slumped against the far back wall - and Kayn eyes him carefully, taking in the thin sword at his hip and the slow rise and fall of his chest. 

“What a lonely way to be spending Snowdown’s Eve,” a quiet voice says, and Kayn’s eyes snap up to the bartender - a short, lanky young man - who stands in front of Kayn with a wry smile. 

There’s a wild, intrinsic charm that surrounds the bartender - a charm that Kayn had noticed the moment he’d stepped inside the establishment - and Kayn eyes the man carefully as he takes another sip of his drink. 

“I just needed to get out for a bit,” Kayn finally replies, rolling back his shoulder and willing Rhaast to stay silent for once in their miserable lives. “To get away from it all - just for a while.”

The bartender hums, low and full of understanding, before turning back to the glasses he’d been busy washing a second earlier. The man’s hair is dark and thin, pulled into a loose ponytail high on his head, and it falls into his eyes each time he looks down to wash another glass. His sleeves are pushed up past his forearms and Kayn eyes the exposed skin with interest. There are scars there - ones not reminiscent of a life behind a bar - and Kayn tilts his head to catch the man’s eye.

“What’s your name?” Kayn asks, and the bartender looks back at him, amused. 

“Talon,” he replies with a toothy grin, and _Talon, Talon_ , Kayn thinks, _what an oddly familiar name_. “Yours?”

“Kayn,” Kayn murmurs back, mind spinning, “Shieda Kayn.”

“Well Kayn,” Talon murmurs, wiping his hands on a small rag and extending his right with a smile, “Happy Snowdown’s Eve.”

Kayn shakes his hand slowly, fingers tingling as they brush against the thin scars that line Talon’s hand. “Same to you,” Kayn responds slowly, cracking a careful smile and pulling back his hand as quickly as he can without seeming inconsiderate. He pulls his cloak tighter around his corrupted arm, and the bartender settles back on his heels, gaze flitting over to the man on the other side of the room.

“I’ll be right back,” the bartender murmurs, forefinger tapping lightly against the wooden countertop of the bar. Kayn watches him make his way over to the sleeping man, hand trailing against the counter as he goes, and Kayn takes another slow drink.

“Yasuo,” the bartender says, prodding at the sleeping man’s shoulder. “Yasuo, get up.”

“Mmphf,” the doubled over man - _Yasuo, apparently_ – manages, tilting up his head and staring lazily at Talon, a drunken frown upon his lips. “‘S there something you want?”

“We have a guest,” Talon states by way of reply, nodding his head over to where Kayn sits. “Sit up, and I’ll get the both of you another drink.”

Yasuo visibly perks up at this, and Kayn opens his mouth to protest - a polite denial at the tip of his tongue. However, before he’s even able to get his first word out, the bartender has already turned and disappeared through the back door, thin coattails trailing behind him.

Kayn turns to find Yasuo sliding into the barstool next to him, an off-kilter yet friendly smile stretched across his face. “You’re Talon, then?” he asks, and Kayn can smell whiskey on his breath as he speaks.

“Yeah,” Kayn replies, slowly. “And you’re _Yasuo_?”

“The one and only,” he replies with a low laugh, and Kayn stares at him harder. _Yasuo, Yasuo - doesn’t he know that name too?_ Yasuo’s face is rough, unshaven and mussed, and his hair is tied back in a thick ponytail against the back of his head. Despite the obvious smell of liquor that hangs about him, there’s a terribly lucid feeling to the man’s eyes, and Kayn wonders for the first time if he shouldn’t have gone to a more populated, less out of the way bar. 

Kayn turns back to his drink, mildly confused, and doesn’t look up again until the swing of the back door announces the bartender’s return. 

“Here,” Talon says, stepping up to the two men with three steaming ceramic cups. “It’s on the house.”

Yasuo takes a cup with a single quirked eyebrow, sniffing the contents and furrowing his brow. “Chocolate?” he asks, just as Talon hands Kayn his own cup. 

“Hot,” agrees the bartender, grinning slightly, “with a bit of liquor, too.”

Yasuo makes a pleased noise under his breath, and Kayn looks down at the steaming cup in his hand, dark liquid reflecting the lights overhead. He eyes the drink carefully, then - after deciding that any potential poison could well be combated by Rhaast - he takes a small sip. The chocolate is sweet, yet the sharp undertone of alcohol cuts through it all. Kayn takes another slow sip, reveling in the heat of it, before setting down the cup and looking back up at the bartender.

“Happy Snowdown’s Eve,” the bartender repeats, as Kayn meets his gaze. Talon takes a long drink from his own cup, before setting his hot chocolate down and gazing at Kayn from across the bar. His sleeves have been rolled back down - scars covered by the clean, white cloth - and Kayn blinks back a frown. 

“Thank you for the chocolate,” Kayn finally says, and Talon shrugs the gratitude off, collecting Yasuo’s empty cup with a grin.

“My pleasure,” Talon replies. “After all, it's the least I could do after you saved me all the work of finding you.”

Kayn startles out of his drink, eyes lifting to stare at the other man. “What do you mean?” Kayn asks, his corrupted arm shifting to grip at the edge of his stool.

“What I mean, Shieda Kayn,” Talon says slowly, “is that I’ve been wanting to speak with you for a while now.”

“Shieda,” Kayn says, frowning as he mumbles out his full name, “I - do I know you?”

The bartender shrugs, eyes gleaming. “You may have heard of me,” he replies, the edges of his mouth pulling up into a grin. “But I’ve been told I’m not a very memorable person. My father, on the other hand… well, that’s a little more likely.” Kayn shakes his head, trying to remember if the man had given him a family name, before Yasuo lets out a dramatic sigh from the seat beside him, clapping him on the shoulder and sinking further down into his seat.

“ _Couteau_ , stop terrorizing the man and just get on with it. I want another hot chocolate.”

Kayn grips his cup harder in his hand, frown deepening, and the bartender scoffs, drinking the last of his own chocolate and depositing the cup somewhere behind the bar. _Couteau, Couteau, Couteau._

“You’ve had far too many already -” Talon starts, dryly, “though I’m flattered you find my mixes so enjoyable.”

Yasuo starts to speak again, yet Kayn cuts in, a heavy, sinking feeling settling in his gut. Couteau. _Talon._

“What did you say your name was, again?” Kayn asks, eyes narrowing in on the bartender's face.

Yasuo snorts from the stool beside him, and the bartender turns, eyes bright as they meet Kayn’s own. “Talon,” he replies, the name slow and heavy as it leaves his mouth. “Talon Du Couteau. And I’ve been wanting to speak with you for a while now, Shieda Kayn.”

_Talon Du Couteau._

_Shadow Blade of Noxus._

Kayn sets down his cup, stands up, and slowly bares his teeth.

**Author's Note:**

> Kayn really is terribly bad at names, isn't he? (I'd imagine those two are both something of household names, back in Ionia.)
> 
> That said, for context on the background of this fic: I’ve created for myself a terribly involved AU that follows Talon’s travels through Ionia (wherein he gets to work as a bartender for a period of time). And although this isn’t exactly how Kayn and Talon meet in that AU, I decided to pull from it quite a bit for this fic, and thought that this scenario in particular could make for a fun, festive one shot (that could also include your boy Yasuo)! [@hhuguri](https://twitter.com/hhuguri), I very much hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> Happy Holidays, and thanks for reading! <3 You can find me [here](https://twitter.com/alainey_lee) on twitter!


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